Burlington student offers a measure of green gumption

What inspires meaningful change? For Tré Diemer, a seventh-grader at Mater Christi School in Burlington, it began with a closer look at landfill-bound lunch leftovers. He recently won a national award for his efforts.

Feb. 23, 2014

Tré Diemer, 13, double-checks the dimensions for a new recycle-and-compost station Wednesday at Mater Christi Middle School in Burlington. Tré recently won a national prize for his project. / JOEL BANNER BAIRD/Free Press

Tré Diemer, a seventh-grader at Mater Christi Middle School in Burlington, takes a break Wednesday with John Powell of the Chittenden Solid Waste District. / JOEL BANNER BAIRD/Free Press

A computer rendering (amended in pencil) of a proposed cafeteria 'sort station' for Mater Christi School in Burlington. The design, still in progress, in a collaboration between seventh grader Tré Diemer and John Powell, school outreach coordinator at Chittenden Solid Waste District. / JOEL BANNER BAIRD/Free Press

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Is Tré Diemer an activist or simply an advocate for common sense?

The subject hasn’t come up, thank goodness.

What’s obvious, though: When Tré, 13, troubleshoots (in this case, cafeteria waste and water-bottle issues at Mater Christi School in Burlington), he also solution-shoots, raises money and rolls up his sleeves.

One recent day, he brandished a printed plan for a new “sorting station” designed to steer more lunchtime cast-offs into recycling and compost operations.

Pencil scrawl indicated dimensional revisions and the addition of rolling casters and a splash guard.

“Way too much has been going into the landfill,” Tré said.

Earlier this year, judges for the national Prudential Spirit of Community Awards picked up on the lad’s gumption and awarded him top honors for his initiative and drive.

Tré has reason to flush with pride. The award includes $1,000 in cash and an all-expenses trip to Washington, D.C.

But, he pointed out, he’s had ample support from teachers, parents (including his own), the Sisters of Mercy (who founded the school and shaped the school’s abiding environmental ethos) and his fellow student council members (“who did the important, student-to-student stuff”).

He found Principal Paul Jette all ears on budgetary as well as environmental matters (lower haulage fees proved to be the clincher).

“When I made the pitch, it was all real businesslike,” Tré said. “You have to say, step-by-step, what you’re doing, and you have to be sure of yourself.”

He’ll be staking a portion of the prize money in the project’s success.

Duet

Early in the fall, Tré found a key collaborator in the form of John Powell, who coordinates school outreach for the Chittenden Solid Waste District.

Powell, tall, bearded and dreadlocked, shares the much younger man’s mission of making things happen.

They tag-teamed through brainstorms, sobering critique and hard numbers (a CSWD waste-reduction grant will cover 40 percent of the station’s final cost).

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They weighed the advantages of various building materials and agreed to consider using recycled stock, but to put a premium on quality and longevity.

“We want this to stand the test of time,” Tré explained.

Scale

Powell’s experience in helping other school cafeterias manage waste surfaced in the details.

“You want to make the top of this low enough that even the shortest kids can see into the openings,” Powell said. “If the surface is too high, they don’t feel in control.”

Tré paused to explained the station’s layout (subject to change): Students first will encounter the opening for liquids — so they can stabilize their lunch trays and concentrate on the subsequent bays for recycling and composting.

Only after considering those options will they encounter the landfill-bound bin.

Sorting tips and updates will be posted on a whiteboard, above the splash guard. The wheels will let cafeteria staff or teachers pull the unit out for quick barrel swap-outs.

Color schemes still are under discussion and subject to instant change on Tré’s notebook computer, where a 3-D (Google Sketch) rendering resides.

Color-coding might visually “pop” a message for each of the station’s openings, Tré added.

Then, in a less speculative mood, he suggested we hike up to the third-floor middle school.

Addition

Water pressure always has been problematic up here, Tré said on the third floor. Water fountains had been sluggish for decades.

And now, with a school-wide prohibition on disposable water bottles, the fountains’ meager flow had become a disincentive to the many students who brought their own containers here for a refill.

Mater Christi recently yanked the most heavily used of the old-school fixtures. In its place sits a “smart” fountain — one with a recessed, motion- and pressure-activated spout for refills.

A team of fundraisers (and another CSWD grant) paid for the $1,000 unit.

“You’re getting rid of stuff that’s wicked old and not energy efficient, and over time that adds up,” Tré said.

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The new gear has advantages of better hygiene and less water waste, Powell added: “When you’re leaning over for a drink at a fountain, lapping up water, a lot of that water is running right by you, down the drain.”

Coolness

In one of the school’s conference rooms, Tré and Powell mulled over the mindsets of people who find this sort of work important, and that of folks who can’t be bothered.

Concerns over the Earth’s fate have become commonplace among his classmates, Tré said: “We’re asking, ‘What if we use up all our resources? What then?’”

Powell believes it’s part of a trend.

“There’s been a slow but progressive shift in what’s considered cool,” Powell said. “It used to be that cool was not caring. Now it’s cool to care. And if the cool kids care, everybody’s going to care.”

Tré declined to venture a guess on his own coolness factor.

He did, however, offer a more useful theory.

“Anybody can make a difference, as long as they put time and effort into it,” Tré said. “That’s kind of what it boils down to.”